Archive for April 2009

Hey there! Long time no see! I know this is the first blog posting in a long time, but I assure you, FPAN has been hard at work behind the scenes! We just rounded out an amazing Archaeology month, where we took the public by storm with 47 events in 30 days! Go team!

With Archaeology month over, we are gearing up for a St. Johns County Historic Cemetery Conference for the summer, and boy are we excited!!Rich Estabrook, the director of the Central FPAN region, brought us this crazy contraption known as Ground Penetrating Radar. This machine looks like a cross between a lawn mower and a jogging stroller!! The GPR, in its most basic sense, is a machine and technique that collects and records information about what is under the ground through non-destructive radio waves. It is a technique that has been employed in such fields as engineering, geology, environmental studies, and more recently, archaeology.

After getting a crash course on the GPR process, the crew was ready to head out and start collecting data for the cemetery conference. After lots of research and deliberation, the cemeteries we tested are the National Cemetery, Huguenot Cemetery, and Tolomato Cemetery. An added delight was the opportunity to use GPR in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine!!

Interested in seeing how this all works and what our findings are?? Then check out the T'omb It May Concern Historic Cemetery Conference!!

From June 11th to June 13th, the conference will feature guided tours of St. Johns County cemeteries, lectures (with archaeologist, Dr. Kathleen Deagan as the keynote speaker!), and workshops (such as GPR use, cemetery research, and headstone preservation). Registration for the event opens May 1st for tour reservations (as spaces are limited). Check out the FPAN website at http://www.fpannortheast.org/programs.cfm, or contact Amber Weiss, Outreach Coordinator, at AWeiss@flagler.edu for more information. Hurry before YOUR time runs out!!